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| Funny how a weekend holiday can turn into a week, how a
place can have such an effect on you, its happened to me before in
Las Vegas and it just happened again here in Bolivia. I really
wanted to visit Tarija before leaving here and so Pedro and I went
for a ‘long weekend’. Tarija is way off the gringo trail, its
not on that direct route through Bolivia heading towards Peru or
Brazil and so everyone just seems to let it pass on by. What a
mistake-a to make-a! Completely different to Potosi and the
highlands of Bolivia Tarija is green, hot, relaxed and brimming with
flowers of all types and colours. We arrived early morning and
immediately found a little alojamiento by the pretty and unusual San
Roque church. Every day there was something to do, a million
and one places to bathe in the rivers, waterfalls and streams.
One place, very popular with the locals called Tomatitas, an
attractive place no doubt with a river flowing, albeit with a lot
less water right now, a decrepid wooden footbridge with a sign
forbidding the washing of clothes in the river. The bridge
directly below strewn with clothes drying in the sun. And yet
no-one seems to venture a few kms further to Coimata where there are
little waterfalls and much further upstream following a beautiful
little path over rocks and past grazing cows up to a two tiered
fall, sheltered and its beauty hidden from all. The walk
itself leading up to a green valley, misty mountains meeting in a
secret place the range further behind indistinct and lacking
clarity, the air steaming and the people passing always with a
greeting, a friendly smile or a nod of the head. One thing I know not to do anymore, which I should have learnt in La Paz after the trouble we had with it there, is not to rely so heavily…or in fact to believe a bloody word the Lonely Planet says. Finding Coimata wasn’t too tough, although the directions were wrong it wasn’t hard to find someone to ask … however, finding Rincón de la Victoria which apparently lay 5km in the other direction and which has a waterfall that you can climb behind, was more like 100km and there was no-one on this path, totally deserted, which was nice at first but in the hot sun and not feeling too hot as I’d been a little bit ill just before leaving Potosi. We never made it, hate giving up but it really was too much. The next day we went to take a bus out to Entre Rios, various people including the girl in the ticket office assured us that the journey was only a couple of hours and so at 10am we boarded the bus that wouldn’t leave for a good 40 minutes afterwards and sat back to enjoy the journey. And what a journey…the arid parched landscape, the foggy mountains rising and falling in the distance began changing, more flowers sprouted, trees multiplied and cacti were replaced with tropical banana plants. The road followed an uncertain path with sheer drops and the most incredible views...when I could take my eyes off the rapidly diminishing side of the dirt path on which we seemed to be going rather rapidly. With every blind corner the horn was honked to warn oncoming vehicles…or really, I think the driver just liked the sound of his own...horn. But really, I had to just concentrate on the view and forget the danger because it was so incredible seeing scenery like this after so long in the dry desert scape. After 2 hours we stopped and the driver announced we had a 20 minute break here. Not having bought any extra money with us we couldn’t buy any food and were a little preoccupied about why we should stop for a break when we should be nearly there. So we asked only to be told that we had another 2 hours journey yet! Well, so much for local knowledge eh! We enjoyed the rest of the journey only to arrive and have to come back immediately. We managed to wander around for an hour and wandered down to the river and admired the gorgeous tropical nature of this tiny place… we promised each other to return before I left, to pass on this route on our way to Santa Cruz as the road between here and Santa Cruz is the Chaco road, passing through the grand Chaco which is supposed to be amazing for wildlife. We visited the house of Moto Mendéz, absolutely no idea who he is but apparently a great fighter of colonial times, however his house/museum was closed when we arrived, we managed to squeeze in 5 mins in the museum of Paleontology before it closed…then they closed the city and the whole country down for siesta… so we went home. But with a big smile and a huge carton full of strawberries that we managed to get through half of on the bus! home soon guys, Nov 6th the big day, let me know if anyones in england or around for the opeing of my new pub in Ireland tons of love to you all Ems _________________________________________________________________ MSN Photos is the easiest way to share and print your photos: http://photos.msn.com/support/worldwide.aspx |
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